A dramatic encounter
1:03pm Thursday 1st May 2008
UNA has driven hundreds of miles to confront Ray, having found his photograph in a magazine in the doctor’s waiting room 15 years after he left her alone in a seaside hotel room.
But Ray has become Peter and wants nothing to do with her and wants even less to revisit their shared past.
Una, however, is determined to make him go back 15 years to the family barbecue where their relationship began when she was 12 years old.
The award-winning Blackbird, playing at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, May 3, takes as its starting point a relationship that, by any definition, is not only inappropriate but illegal, and slowly reveals the couple’s history and the impact it has had on the their lives in the intervening years.
Two powerhouse performances from Dawn Steele and Robert Daws ensure that the audience is immediately drawn into the encounter, forced to watch as raw emotions surface and more questions are asked than answered. David Harrower’s script is extraordinary, every word made to count, creating a situation so credible one might have been a voyeur - a stunning example of art concealing art.
There is no easy conclusion, no happy ending to Blackbird. This is a play to challenge preconceptions, drama that, in the course of an intense 90 minutes, constantly challenges one’s view of events.
Blackbird is at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, May 3. To book, call 01684 892277 or click on the link below.